ABSTRACT
As the use of one mode of transport – the private car – is both intensified and globalized, so are its social, ecological, and environmental consequences. While environmental consequences (such as enhanced carbon emissions) have received ample attention and study (Committee on the Future of Personal Transport Vehicles in China 2003), its social ecological consequences (such as growing transport inequity) have not (Adams 1999). The focus on the general environment is understandable given transport’s substantial contribution to global warming. However, this ‘big picture’ can obscure the negative impacts of specific inequalities within transport, inequalities rooted in the differential distribution of its rewards and risks. These rewards and risks are defined by both social (i.e., social class) and ecological (i.e., location) parameters. For example, the public health impacts of pollution from growing traffic congestion disproportionately afflict poorer people who live in areas proximate to major road interchanges, petroleum refineries, etc. (Bae 2004).
